


Suspicion is a heavy armor

by middlemarch



Category: Frozen (Disney Movies), Mercy Street (TV)
Genre: F/M, Humor, Queen Anna, Romance, Running Joke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-17 12:54:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29593110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/middlemarch/pseuds/middlemarch
Summary: One formal event was much like any other but Anna always found something to remark on.
Relationships: Anna/Kristoff (Disney), Emma Green/Henry Hopkins
Kudos: 5





	Suspicion is a heavy armor

“Kristoff, did you see?” Anna whispered. She wasn’t especially good at whispering-at-court though she was fine if they were walking through the snowy woods or Olaf had finally gotten to sleep. It was a fairly minor flaw, as flaws went, but those were the only kind Anna seemed to have. He leaned closer in hopes of making any further attempts at whispering effective.

“See what?” he asked, keeping his voice low. He had more trouble with the gem-studded crown, needed his head rubbed for a good quarter-hour after any formal events when the Lord of Tyholmen had to attend in full regalia. Anna did what she could, but formal events were de rigeur, an expression Kristoff had learned from one of the attachés from Francia; he could have lived without knowing it. 

“Lord Henricus, the minister from Genf—he wasn’t wearing vambraces for the joust!” Anna said, unable to keep from exclaiming. “Not leather, nor mail—what do you think it means? Is it a provocation? Is he saying he’s impervious to injury or that he risks more than anyone else? Is it the style in Genf to go without, d’you think, or do they practice some sort of magic, not ice-magic but some sort of protective spell? Does it include his hands?”

“Anna, p’rhaps he just likes his arms bare,” Kristoff said. “Maybe all he’s saying is that he likes to roll up his sleeves and get down to it. Jousting or dinner or what-have-you.”

“Well, I don’t know. I don’t think I can ask right now though,” Anna said regretfully. “And I’m the Queen, I probably shouldn’t ask at all.”

“That sounds reasonable,” Kristoff replied. The fact that he was having this conversation made him wonder if he’d eaten a bad batch of mushrooms on the way back to see Pabbie and he waited a second to see if Sven was going to lick him awake. Reindeer slobber was an impressively effective alarm. When it appeared clear that he was actually talking to his wife, the Queen of Arendelle, about the armor choices of a visiting dignitary, he went on. “You have plenty of ladies-in-waiting just waiting for something to do. Ask one of them to say something.”

“Thyra? She’s awfully helpful,” Anna said. Kristoff looked around the Great Hall and saw who was looking and at whom.

“No. Ask Lady Emma. I’m sure she’ll get to the bottom of it,” Kristoff said.

“Lady Emma! Lady Emma! I’ve a mission for you,” Anna called out not a breath later. Anna could not be that interested in Lord Henricus’s missing vambraces and so she must have seen what Kristoff had and having seen it, granted the wish her lady-in-waiting would never ask for.

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Robert Burns.
> 
> Vambraces (French: avant-bras, sometimes known as lower cannons in the Middle Ages) or forearm guards are tubular or gutter defences for the forearm worn as part of a suit of plate armour that were often connected to gauntlets. Vambraces may be worn with or without separate couters in a full suit of medieval armour. The term originates in the early 14th century. They were made from either boiled leather or steel.


End file.
